v0.9.30 Release Notes

And what's coming next after 0.9.30

Written by Ryan Stout Updated this week

In this release, we've included a few pretty large improvements and a number of smaller ones. These include:

Settings Untoggle

There are a few cases where Arsenal toggles a camera setting to a new value before taking a shot, then toggles it back after the shot. Currently if something happens to the camera or Arsenal before Arsenal can toggle the setting back, the setting will remain toggled. To handle this situation, we added a tracking system that changes the settings back when Arsenal reconnects to the same camera. (If the setting has been changed in the mean time it will not be set back) After this release, if you think Arsenal has changed a setting other than iso, aperture, shutter, or exposure compensation, you can reconnect Arsenal to your camera and it should be set back.

New Stacking Menu

Currently the Arsenal app has a triggers menu at the bottom of the screen. While we plan to add more triggers, we're realized that having fast access to the stacking options is a more frequent need. So we've moved the time delay trigger to the settings menu and moved the exposure bracketing, focus stacking, and long exposure stacking to its own quick menu at the bottom of the screen. This will also let you see what stacking options are enabled before taking the shot (without checking the settings menu.)

New messaging system

There's quite a few different messages that Arsenal needs to display. The original messaging system was a bit limited in how and when we could display messages to the user. The new system does a better job of handling messages. In the new system, error messages and important notifications have a "dismiss" button, so you don't miss the message if you aren't looking at the app.

Also included:

Focusing in Arsenal no longer requires changing the AF method on some canon cameras!

Handle issue where Nikon cameras will sometimes return corrupt live view frames, which would cause smart mode and a few other things to be impacted

Add a warning message when shutter time exceeds timelapse interval

Fixed an issue that caused iOS app disconnects

Fixed issue with setting iso 6400 on some Sony cameras

Improvements to Android firmware update process

Added clock syncing between Android/iOS app and device to make sure photos show up in correct order even in the event of a clock loss

Handle failed frames during a timelapse breaking the timelapse preview

General performance improvements

Improved boot time

Fixes for various camera specific issues

As for the future, we're primarily focused on the following for the next few releases:

Vibration Detection Improvements

In some wind conditions, Arsenal's vibration constraint can be too sensitive. We're out in the cold here in Montana doing some field testing to better tune the vibration constraint. This mostly involves adding filtering to higher frequencies that the accelerometer can pick up, but don't affect the sharpness of the photo.

Camera Specific Issues

After this release, our first priority is finalizing support for a few cameras that have to date proven troublesome. Those are the Fuji X-T1*, Fuji X-E2, Nikon D3100, Nikon D3000, Sony SLT-A99, and Sony SLT-A77 II. In addition, there are some camera-specific bugs we’re still working through: for instance, the 7D and 5D Mark II have a similar freezing issue and the Sony cameras that connect via Wifi have a similar issue with multi-point and focus stacking that we’re working on. If your camera is experiencing any issues, drop us a note (help@witharsenal.com). Lastly, we'll also be working to support some other camera models that didn't see as much demand during our Kickstarter campaign.

*The Fuji X-T1 has some improvements in it for this release. We’re still working out handheld mode and a few other things, but would be interested in feedback from those that have it.

Saving Stacked Images to SD card

Our second priority is saving stacked images back to the SD card. Users can currently share a JPEG image from their mobile app, but the final stacked image is not available on the SD card. We are hoping to add this to all cameras; on some it has worked smoothly, but on others we are still working on solutions and doing more testing.

After that, we’re focused on video mode, holy grail timelapses, and adding support for additional cameras, particularly newer models that have come out recently. Some of the more popular cameras we will work to certify are: Nikon Z6, Nikon Z7, Canon EOS R, Fuji X-T2, Fuji X-T3, and Panasonic GH5.